


Cold and Sweet

by kalypso_of_ogygia



Category: Girl Meets World
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, F/M, Fluff, Ice Cream, Moments, Riarkle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-28
Updated: 2018-07-28
Packaged: 2019-06-17 16:35:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15465555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kalypso_of_ogygia/pseuds/kalypso_of_ogygia
Summary: Three times Riley and Farkle shared ice cream and one time they didn't





	Cold and Sweet

 

_i._

 

Riley holds out a cup of ice cream to him: a scoop of chocolate with pink bunny marshmallows and nuts. Farkle has always been a fan of sugar and his best friend always makes sure that his ice cream is as interesting as he is. She always gives out the cup with a sunny smile and a "Here ya go, Farkley!". But today her eyes are cloudy with questions. Her brow is furrowed in thought and she's far more serious than the young genius is used to seeing her.

“Farkle.” Her fingers play with her spoon (it’s her favorite one: pink with blue hearts along the handle) and the perfect curve of her dessert is traded for a scattering of chocolate hills in a half-melted sea of ice cream.

“What’s on your mind, Riley?” The boy stops digging through his treat and gives her an open sort of look. It’s one he reserves for his experiments, especially when something curious happens.

Her spoon pushes the ice cream around the bowl, drowning the marshmallows in the sweet melty soup. “Do you think I’ll be a good sister?” she asks, lifting her brown eyes to look at his blue ones.

Farkle doesn’t miss a beat. There is, after all, only one right answer. “Of course you will! You’re Riley Matthews: the nicest, most gentle and caring person in the entire universe. You’ll be the best sister ever. Science says so.” He wiggles his brows at her and his glasses to slip on the bridge of his nose. Riley gives him a classic giggle and boy does he love that sound. “Why did you ask, anyway?”

“Mom says she’s having a baby. A _boy_ baby,” she adds, her voice as soft as the marshmallows. It scares her that a baby is coming. As her mommy’s tummy gets bigger and bigger, she thinks about her brother more and more, wondering what he could be like. “What if he hates me?”

“He won’t,” he says in that so-sure-of-himself way of his. Because while Farkle Minkus is all about facts and evidence and hard science, this is a truth his heart knows well. He puts a hand on hers and gives her the biggest smile in the world. “And you know what? He’ll love you the most.”

Riley can’t help but smile back and it’s like all her worries don’t matter because she has Farkle, her best friend, and he’ll always be there to help her when she needs him.

 

_ii._

 

This time it’s strawberry cheesecake-flavored with chocolate chips and orange-flavored whipped cream. They’ve just gotten out of school after dealing with Farkle’s bully and Riley takes it upon herself to get her best friend to smile again.

The red and white awning stretches above them, protection from the sharp afternoon light. The shop bell chimes with every new customer and, for the few seconds the door is open, you can just hear the radio sing glitterpop and summer hits as if to call the season closer. Not that any of them are _that_ excited for school to get out. After all, Lucas would have to go back to Texas to see his family. And it’s not like Riley, Maya, or Farkle get out of the city much; not when it meant not seeing each other even if only for a while.

Farkle is glad they got a seat outside. It's that rare time of day where everyone takes it slow and the air smells less like exhaust. A gentle breeze sweeps through the street almost as if the city itself is yawning. He never had a problem with speed before, always loving it when his dad would give him computers that would boot up in less than seconds. But today was hard. Slow gives him the time to adjust, to process everything that happened at school.

Having a powerful dad used to mean that the other kids stayed out of his way. That their parents would shush them when they said something about his hair or his turtlenecks or his love for science. And after growing up with them, he got used to it when Riley and Maya would make quips on his quirks. Their jokes stung sometimes but they’re Riley and Maya. They’d never hurt him.

_But_ , he thinks, _I guess everyone else isn’t like Riley and Maya. Other people just don’t care_.

A sparkly boot nudges his foot and he looks up at Riley, who has since given up on Maya and Lucas’ debate on whether the Texan is more of a Ranger Rick or a Huckleberry. She saw the shadow pass his face, knowing all too well that he’s still a little upset. She takes his hand, lacing her fingers through his, and gives them a tight squeeze. Riley’s so close that Farkle can smell the rich vanilla scent of her hair, which is almost as comforting as her hand in his.

“You’re not alone in this, Farkle.” The twinkle in Riley’s eyes seem hopeful, as if she knows that everything’s going to be okay. And in all the time he’s known her, Farkle can’t remember a time when she was wrong about that, about things turning out well for all of them. It’s one of the reasons why he loves her, why he feels for her so strongly. “You have us, remember? Always.”

He tightens his grip on her hand, wishing that this moment with his beloved girl can stretch forever. “Always.”

 

_iii._

 

“Farkle, would you like me to buy you ice cream?”

“What?” In the firelight, Riley’s eyes are a glassy black. She looks at him, almost expectantly, as if she just asked a perfectly normal question at a perfectly normal time. Farkle supposes that’s not untrue: Riley’s said those words plenty of times before. But there’s something about these circumstances and the fragile look in her eyes that causes him to hesitate.

Her gaze is sharp and the shadows cast upon her face make her seem almost sad. “Would you like me to buy you ice cream?”

“Uh, yeah. Sure.”

She gives a pointed look at their two best friends and says something he doesn’t catch. When she turns back to him, her eyes are full and bright. It takes him a few moments to notice how her hands shake. How quickly the dewy drops on her cheek draw lines to her chin. How blank her voice sounds when he asks her what she’d like.

Farkle reaches out, trying to find some semblance of the Riley he knows – _his_ Riley. Her hand feels the same, just a little sweaty. He squeezes it and finds her squeezing back; all those times she held his hand, now it’s his turn to be the one she clings to.

The bright lights of the town call them closer. Despite it being deep into the night, a couple of stores are still open, throwing bright little squares of light unto the pavement. Few of the townspeople mill about and some say hi to the young pair they’ve heard so much of from Lucas.

For a while, the pair trudges as others do, looking for their cool and sweet treasure. They find it by a drugstore which has this little outdoor ice cream stall off to the side. Riley puts up a smile for the old man working the kiosk and in seconds she gets a heaping of rocky road with two sticks of vanilla wafer and two spoons. “Enjoy, you two,” the ice cream man says, giving them a kind wink.

Riley and Farkle take a little red table that faces the street, with a brilliant view of the skyline tracing the treetops. He realizes she’s still holding his hand and, for a while, he just sits there. Watching her toy with her ice cream, picking out the marshmallows and eating them first before getting to the nuts. Once or twice she’d let go to tuck a stray hair behind her ear or to stifle a yawn that pushed through her cherry lips. But always she’d find her way back to him, sneaking an apologetic smile or two his way when she does.

“What’s wrong, Riley?” His voice speaks what words do not. _Please, let me fix it. I’ll find a way, you know I will_.

But she shrugs, as if her sadness is a trifle to be tucked away and forgotten. “I’ve always thought that love was a happy feeling, you know?”

“And isn’t it?” he asks, as if he doesn’t know the truth. He feels it every day she stands beside her Texan hero, every time Lucas would look at her like she is a distant star but she’d gaze back as if she sees an entire universe. Because that’s just how Riley is, always seeing the best in everyone, even if they don’t deserve it.

Her laugh, one he’s always loved hearing, is tapped with bitterness. “Love hurts, Farkle.”

He can only smile back. She has no idea.

 

_iv._

 

He can’t sleep. He’s spent the last three hours staring up at his ceiling, watching Pluto make its way across the sky. It’s almost funny and so very Riley that she’s becoming like the thing she loves: precious but far, far away. Farkle knows that, out of the five of them, he’s the one with the most chance of seeing her. His family owns a jet, after all. And even if they didn’t, he’d thrust their helicopter to the limit until he gets to the sodden London pavement. But it wouldn’t be the same, never the same.

He trains his eyes on the sun, golden and beaming at the middle of it all. It reminds him of the days without Lucas, when he described her as such. _Riley is the sun: someone who brightens up my day_. She is a constant, warm presence that draws everyone to her. Without her, their little galaxy would be nothing but rocks floating aimlessly in a cosmic soup.

Without knowing that he does, he dials her number. She picks up on the third ring.

“Hey, Farkle. What’s up?” When he says nothing, she asks, “Can’t sleep?”

“Not really. You?”

She laughs, soft like a kitten. “I’ve been texting Lucas.” _Of course_. “I’m trying to talk to him as much as I can while we’re still in the same time zone.”

“So she’s decided, then?”

“Well, no.” On the other side of the line, he hears her open the bay window. He can imagine her now: eyes wide, looking up at the sky, memorizing the skyscrapers she’s known her whole life. “We just thought that it’d be harder to say goodbye if we hadn’t said everything we wanted to say.”

“Oh.”

When he doesn’t say anything else, she tries again. “So you called?”

“Yeah. Yeah, sorry. I didn’t know what I was thinking.” Pause. “I guess I just wanted to hear your voice before you start walking around with an English accent.” He adds that last part as a joke so he doesn’t sound so serious. And it works, she laughs.

“No chance of that. Besides, remember French Riley? That was _so_ bad!” And just like that, they’re Riley and Farkle again, talking about anything and everything even if they don’t understand everything the other is saying.

“I’ve got to go to sleep now, Farkle. It was really nice talking to you like this.” He can hear her smile as she says, “It’s been a while.”

“Yeah, I guess. And Riley?”

“Yeah?”

“You’re my best friend, Riley. I love you.”

“And I love you. You go sleep, too, okay?” And then she’s gone.

He lets his phone drop to his pillow and watches the screen until it goes dark. Maybe it’s best that she doesn’t realize, that she doesn’t see what he meant. He closes his eyes, trying to imagine what ice cream she’d give him if she did figure it out. But he can only see her face and watch her smile as it slowly fades away.

**Author's Note:**

> Also posted on ogygianmentality@tumblr.com


End file.
